Thursday, April 18, 2013

Five Years of Forgotten Books; Day 18

DONIS
CASEY is the author of the award-winning Alafair Tucker Mysteries. The
fifth Alafair Tucker Mystery, Crying Blood, will be published by
Poisoned Pen Press in the spring of 2011. You can find her: (bio from 2010)

THE VIRGIN IN THE ICE: THE SIXTH CHRONICLE OF BROTHER CADFAEL by Ellis Peters

I
have always loved historical novels. I’ve been a voracious reader since
childhood, and would read anything I could get my hands on, but I would
always choose a historical novel above any other genre. For me, a
historical novel is like a cheap vacation. I love to go to a place and a
time and live there for a while.
I discovered English author and
scholar Edith Pargeter when I was in my twenties, and she quickly became
one of my favorite historical novelists. The day came, of course, when
I had read every historical novel of hers that I could find here in
this country. Though I’m always happy to reread a good book, I did find
myself hungry for any new historical dish by Pargeter. It didn’t take
much research on my part to find out that under the pseudonym Ellis
Peters, Edith Pargeter had created a fabulous series of historical
mysteries featuring a Benedictine monk by the name of Brother Cadfael.
The Brother Cadfael mysteries are set in Twelfth Century Shrewsbury,
close by the Welsh border, during the long war between King Stephen and
the Empress Maud for the English throne. Cadfael may be an elderly
monk, but that doesn’t mean he’s innocent of the ways of the world. He
gained all the skills necessary to untangle the knottiest mystery during
his young manhood and middle age, when he served as a soldier and a
sailor in the Crusades. There is little of human nature he hasn’t seen.
And since he is also an accomplished herbalist, growing and mixing
medicines for the Abbey, he is an expert on the properties of plants and
poisons.
Each of the Cadfael novels is a fascinating read, but one
of my favorites is the sixth, The Virgin in the Ice. This book stands
out not just for its intriguing puzzle and indelible evocation of the
Medieval English world, but because the reader learns much about
Cadfael’s former life, and how the past has touched the present.
Two
noble young people, seventeen-year-old Ermina and thirteen year old
Yves, go missing, along with their companion and guardian, Sister
Hilaria, following an attack on the city of Worchester by the Empress’
troops. The children’s uncle, newly returned from the Holy Land to serve
as an officer in the Empress’ army, asks if he can be allowed to search
for them in enemy territory, but the local Sheriff refuses permission.
Brother
Cadfael is in the area, at the request of the head of the Priory of
Bromfield, tending to a monk who had been seriously wounded in the
fighting, and volunteers with several others to search for the children
and their Benedictine nun companion. By chance, Cadfael finds the boy,
Yves, sheltering from the blizzard with a forester. Yves tells him that
they had been safe with a local lord during the battle, but his
headstrong sister had run away with a suitor. Equally as impulsive,
Yves had left Sister Hilaria at the manor and set out to find Ermina.
As Cadfael and the boy are returning to Bromfield, they cross a frozen
stream, where Cadfael spots the shadowy form of a woman’s body, frozen
in the ice. Fearing that she is Ermina, he keeps his discovery a secret
from Yves.
The next morning, Cadfael, his friend Deputy Sheriff Hugh
Beringer, and a few other monks, chip out a block of ice containing the
body and bring it back to Bromfield Priory, where they lay it in the
chapel. As the ice thaws, Cadfael realizes that the young woman doesn’t
fit the description of the missing Ermina. The mystery of the woman’s
identity is solved when Yves tells Cadfael and Beringer that she is
Sister Hilaria, whom he had left safe in their sanctuary. The nun had
been raped and murdered, and because of some of the things he said while
raving with fever, Cadfael fears that the wounded monk he is tending
may have done it.
And where is Ermina? She has left her erstwhile
suitor, who she has discovered is a cad, and arrives at Bromfield
Priory, saved by an attractive young Syrian-born squire, who her uncle
has sent incognito into the king’s territory to find the children.
What
follows is a ripping tale of close calls, treachery, and narrow
escapes. How seemingly unrelated events eventually weave together to
create an amazing, but totally believable tale, is a testament to
Peters’ skill as a story teller. She creates haunting images of winter;
blizzards and wind like knives, cold stone castles, the beautiful young
figure frozen in the ice beneath Cadfael’s feet. Her characters are
capable of inhuman cruelty, as well as great acts of kindness and
compassion, cowardice and heroism. Actions of a past long gone affect
the events of the present, and change Cadfael’s life.
I had never had
anything against mysteries, but neither was I a mystery addict in any
sense of the word. But Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael mysteries rocked
my reading world and inspired me to write historical mysteries of my
own. Peters’ voice - the very way the books are written - evoke the
times and the place with the language she uses. The character of
Cadfael himself captured me. He is wise, tolerant, and world-weary, a
man of his times. He has a true warmth, and by that, I don’t mean
sentimentality or emotion, necessarily. I mean a deep humanity and
heart that transcends even his formidable intellect. I want to spend
time with him, and that is the secret of a successful fictional
character. The setting, 12th Century Shrewsbury, is evoked so strongly
that the reader comes away with the sense that she knows what it must
have been like to live in that time and place. The Virgin in the Ice
contains everything I love about historical novels, as well as a clever,
thought-provoking, always surprising mystery.

SHOT IN DETROIT

CONCRETE ANGEL

And this...

“It is a good rule after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.” ― C.S. Lewis

Patricia (Patti) Abbott

Contact me

at aa2579@wayne.edu

About Me

Patricia Abbott is the author of more than 125 stories that have appeared online, in print journals and in various anthologies. She is the author of two print novels CONCRETE ANGEL (2015) and SHOT IN DETROIT (2016)(Polis Books). CONCRETE ANGEL was nominated for an Anthony and Macavity Award in 2016.